Instinct Quotes

Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out.

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled [poets] to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

The wise are instructed by reason; ordinary minds by experience; the stupid, by necessity; and brutes by instinct.

Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius.

A leader or a man of action in a crisis almost always acts subconsciously and then thinks of the reasons for his action.

If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.

Instinct taught me 20 years ago to pace a song or a concert performance. That translates into pacing a story, pleasing a reading audience.

Instinct perfected is a faculty of using and even constructing organized instruments; intelligence perfected is the faculty of making and using unorganized instruments.

A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.

Some other faculty than the intellect is necessary for the apprehension of reality.

It is only by following your deepest instinct that you can lead a rich life, and if you let your fear of consequence prevent you from following your deepest instinct, then your life will be safe, expedient and thin.

Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else's.

Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour germinates no more.

Truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.

I had an instinct before and maybe now I don't have that instinct as much as knowing what to do, what shots to hit, where to place the ball, things like that.

Poetry proceeds from the totality of man, sense, imagination, intellect, love, desire, instinct, blood and spirit together.

Physical bravery is an animal instinct; moral bravery is much higher and truer courage.

Read more: Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better.